Vegetarian friendly

Meatless moussaka

published

Sep 2025

I love Greek food and over the years I have wanted to have moussaka- it looks and smells so good. But it always contains ground lamb or beef, which I can’t eat (alph gal meat allergy). Recently I ran across a couple of moussaka recipes that were meatless, and this recipe is inspired by them. The meat is replaced by intact grains, which mimic the consistency of the ground meat. I use bulghur or farrow (wheat) but for gluten-free, quinoa could be substituted. I also add portobello mushrooms. Both intact grains and mushrooms are great gut-friendly foods!

One other possible problem of traditional moussaka for me is that it uses a rich egg and butter Bechamel-style sauce, which doesn’t always agree with my gut. So I have developed a gut friendly fermented food version using soft cheeses and Greek yogurt.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium/large eggplant
  • 4 (or so) small potatoes
  • 2-3 portobello mushroom caps
  • 1 jar Classico type tomato-based pasta sauce, 28 oz
  • ½ cup bulgur (or other whole grain such as quinoa or barley)
  • 1 cup water
  • Juice from 1 lemon
  • 8 oz marscapone (Italian cream cheese)
  • 8 oz ricotta
  • ½ cup Greek yogurt about ½ cup Greek feta cheese
  • 8 oz mixed Italian cheeses, grated
  • Basil
  • Oregano
  • Fresh mint, chopped (about 1 TBS)
  • Fresh garlic, about 2 cloves, chopped
  • Roasted garlic powder
  • Poultry seasoning
  • Moroccan seasoning
  • Olive oil
  • Coarse salt, such as sea salt or Himalayan salt

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Instructions

  1. Slice eggplants, toss in olive oil, sprinkle roasted garlic powder, and grind coarse salt. Roast at 350 F for 20 min.
  2. Slice portabella caps (about 3-4 big ones) and cut into little cubes. Toss with spices and olive oil. Roast at 350 F for 20 minutes. Collect the broth and use it for cooking the grains.
  3. Slice potatoes, toss in olive oil and layer on bottom of the casserole dish. Sprinkle poultry seasonings, basil, oregano garlic. Roast at 350 F for 30-45 minutes, depending how thickly sliced they are.
  4. Cook bulgur (or other whole grain such as quinoa or barley)- heat 1 cup of water (with mushroom broth) until boiling, add ½ cup bulgur. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and let rest for 10 minutes. Then add chopped garlic and mint, and dried seasoning, and roasted mushroom cubes.
  5. Just before assembling moussaka, add about 1/3 of a jar of Classico-type pasta sauce to grain/mushroom mix and add seasonings to taste. Reserve rest of the sauce as the bulgur/grain will suck up all the sauce.

To make “bechamel”, substitute either or both (I like to do all these together):

  1. Combine ricotta and marscapone and add seasonings
  2. Combine marscapone with diced feta and Greek yogurt and add seasonings

To assemble moussaka:

  1. Spoon ½ of the bulgur/pasta sauce mixture over the potatoes.
  2. Spoon some of the reserve pasta sauce over the potatoes and bulgur
  3. Layer eggplants over the potatoes and bulgur
  4. Spoon more bulgur/mushrooms/pasta sauce over the eggplants, and then spoon the rest of the pasta sauce over that.
  5. Layer the bechamel substitute (whichever) over the bulgur/pasta sauce
  6. Cover with the shredded Italian cheese.
  7. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.
  8. Enjoy!!

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Enjoy!

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